Tony McGillick

Tony McGillick was a pioneering figure in Australian abstraction and a key force behind the Central Street Gallery (1966–1970), which introduced internationalist aesthetics to Sydney’s art scene. Influenced by American hard-edge and colour field painting, McGillick developed a distinctive visual language of shaped canvases, modular compositions, and later, unstretched and draped works.

McGillick studied at the Julian Ashton Art School before spending six years in London, where he exhibited in group shows across Europe, including in London, Edinburgh, and Frankfurt. Returning to Sydney in 1965, he co-founded Central Street Gallery, a space that championed contemporary abstraction and conceptual art, and helped launch a new generation of artists. His work was included in the landmark 1968 exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria, a defining moment in Australian modernism.

Although he held only a handful of solo exhibitions during his lifetime—including at Pinacotheca (1968) and in the NGV’s Survey 6 series (1978)—his influence was far-reaching. A posthumous retrospective at Sherman Galleries (1993) and the 2018 exhibition A Field of Colour at Macquarie University Art Gallery have since affirmed his legacy. His work is held in major public collections, including the Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Victoria, QAGOMA, and the UTS Art Collection.